The formula is also reminiscent of the old-school OPIs – smoothly flowing, liquid-y, never gloopy. Yet, it’s quite opaque – you should only need two coats with this. As always, the ProWide brush is fantastic and makes application a breeze. Definitely worth checking out for the fall season!

Sally Hansen’s Gem Crush Nail Color in Big Money. I’m not a huge fan of glitters – they’re terrifying to remove and a little too much for everyday wear. I do love this one though! The tiny base glitters  are a neutral gold, almost metallic taupe, interspersed with larger round particles of lavender glitter. It’s one of the more unique and wearable ones I’ve seen, and it’s pretty dense for a glitter polish. Tips: To make removal easier though, I started with a coat of OPI’s Tickle My France-y (review & swatch here), and used two coats of Big Money. Also, glitters tend to “eat up” top coat , so you might want to use two layers of top coat if you want that ultra-glossy smooth finish.

Close-up of the neutral gold + lavender glitters

Bonus – it went with my dress beautifully! (Say hello to my friend Justina on the right – she was integral in persuading me to start this blog, by the way! Justina, don’t hate me for using this photo please :p).

• Thumb – OPI’s You Don’t Know Jacques (possibly my favourite taupe)
• Index – Leighton Denny’s Supermodel (not available in North America as far as I know. Got it for free in an issue of Cosmo UK, I think, sometime in the summer. I’ve always wanted to try the brand so I was very excited about this freebie. Why don’t US magazines give freebies like the UK ones do?!)
• Middle – OPI’s Tickle My France-y (possibly my favourite neutral)
• Ring – 1 part OPI’s Tickle My France-y, and 1 part each of two Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure colours in Wet Clay and Lavender Cloud
• Pinky – 1 part Wet Clay and 1 part Lavender Cloud

Mixing the colours wasn’t actually that difficult. I used a piece of plastic packaging as my palette to mix colours on. I put a generous drop of each polish colour onto the plastic, and used the brush from one of the actual bottles to mix and apply. Make sure to mix enough for two fingers, and apply it to the same finger on both hands before proceeding to the next one – you don’t know want your unique polish colour to sit on the plastic for too long and dry up!

As for those worried about using a brush from an existing bottle, I wouldn’t be too concerned about it. The colours you’ll mix are likely to be similar, so any “tainting” of the original colour will be marginal.

An easy and fun way to expand your mani “repertoire” :)

Deborah Lippmann’s Ruby Red Slippers. Sigh. Doesn’t Deb just do the best glitters? What with Across the Universe and Happy Birthday, I don’t think you can go wrong with a Lippmann glitter. Breaks the bank though, so I only purchase on special occasions. What was it this time? A special Shoppers/Murale promotion where I got an additional $80 from spending my points! It’s like I got this baby for free :p

I have the same issues with this as I did with Across the Universe. The base black colour is super sheer (which is necessary in order to allow the red hexagonal and round glitters to really pop). But it’s an easy fix – just start off with a coat of black polish (I used OPI’s Black Onyx here), apply two coats of the glitter polish and it looks perfectly opaque. As with most glitters, this polish is a bit thicker than usual, but again, this is necessary to suspend the glitters within the liquid.

I love this, I really do. Not as much as Across the Universe, as this one is a bit one-dimensional in comparison. But for what it is, it’s pretty badass. I’m not much of a mushy Valentine’s Day celebrator – I avoid the cutesy pink nail polish on the day at all costs. This is a much sexier and exciting option, don’t you think? ;)

The only one I own right now is by Joe Fresh (again, $4 a pop) and it’s decent. The matte effect is certainly effective, although you may need two coats to avoid streakiness. Longevity is another issue. After a day of wear, the tips of my nails inevitably brush against cloth, skin, what have you, and the matte finish polishes itself to a dull shine. It’s actually an interesting ombre effect, with the matte being strong near the cuticle, and fading into shininess at the nail tips. But I wasn’t having it that day.

I whipped out my top coat, ready to polish each nail back to glossy inky blackness. But I decided to try something different! Behold:

The easiest nail art ever. Seriously. And it looks so cool! Before the top coat polish globs flatten out and dry down, it looks almost like water droplets!  This is all you need:

• Nail polish of your choice – preferably a dark one, because I think the contrasting textures pop more than with light colours. I used OPI’s Black Onyx.
• A mattifying top coat (again, Joe Fresh)
• A regular shiny top coat – I would suggest a non-fast drying one. When you create the dots, fast drying top coats tend to dry faster (duh) when they come into contact with air. You can be left with weird blobs/indentations, or bits if stringy dried top coat. Not fun. I used Nails Inc. Kensington Caviar top coat, which is fast-drying and not ideal for this. Still looks okay though if you can work quickly enough.
• Something to make dots with. You could get a nail art dotting tool – you can choose one based on how big you want your dots to be. I ended up using the end of an old crappy concealer brush.

So simple. Just apply regular polish, apply the matte top coat, then dip your dotting tool into the shiny top coat and dot away! The effect is fun and edgy, but requires little effort. Give it a try sometime, and let me know how it goes!

OPI’s Warm & Fozzie is a intense bronze foil polish packed with copper, gold, bronze, and maybe…taupe shimmer? It’s a very complex polish. The shimmers are suspended in gray base – this becomes especially apparent when you remove this polish (the cotton pad shows remnants of the bronze-y shimmer particles, as well as a flat gray smudge).

As with most foils, the polish looks like it would be gritty to the touch, but it’s perfectly smooth. Truly nothing beats the finish of a foil if you’re looking for something snazzy and eye-catching – glitters are beautiful, but a nightmare to remove. Foils may not be the easiest polish to remove either, but they fare much better than glitters, and have a similar glitzy effect. Love!

OPI’s Mermaid’s Tears is another little gem from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection. Again, another colour that I don’t really see fitting in with the movie franchise, but whatever. It’s a dusty, muted light turquoise creme. I love this colour! Great for those who want to wear brighter polishes that aren’t too in your face.

It’s in the same vein as the Nicole by OPI’s My Lifesaver and Orly’s Gumdrop, but Mermaid’s Tears is like their less saturated cousin. Applied really well in two coats. No complaints!

Consequently, I have a lot of new material to blog about that I really should get around to. This is one of my more recent gifts (thanks Chu!).

Rock Coat over The One That Got Away

OPI The One That Got Away by itself

Dior Rock Coat (shown in the first image over OPI’s The One That Got Away, ) is a super sheer jelly gray-black that’s designed to be used over other colours as a top coat. It turns the existing colour into a smokey, vampier version of itself.

In theory, a really cool idea. I’m all for changing up my nail colour, especially if I’ve had the colour on for a few days and want to jazz it up without applying a new shade. However, you have be quite careful and strategic with Rock Coat. Getting the exact right amount of polish on the brush is important in order to achieve a streak-free finish. Even so, it’s sort of a hit-or-miss product – I HATE brushstrokes of any kind, so this kind of variability in application really irks me.

A lot of this has to do with the type of polish you choose to use underneath, though! I’ve had great luck with it over high-shimmer foil polishes such as OPI’s The One That Got Away (pictured). It turns the bright glittery polish into a more glowy, “dark on the edges, light in the centre” finish that I love so much. It’s pretty difficult to use over light pastel creme colours though – the streaks show up like crazy.

I didn’t have a chance to swatch (or even use) many polishes while on exchange in Europe. I did receive several new ones from friends for my birthday when I returned to Vancouver (thanks guys!) but I left for Hong Kong only a few days after that. And the lighting in my room in HK leaves much to be desired; couldn’t get a decent photo of anything.

But enough of the excuses! I’m back now to spread some more nail polish love, and that’s all that matters, right? :)

Okay then, here goes nothing. I’m clearly a little rusty. I have here a nail polish that my dear friend Antin got for my birthday (pictured above is me with two of them. Doesn’t she have good taste? :p)

OPI Steady As She Rose, another pale and muted hue from the Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides collection. I would clumsily describe this as a light, grayed, rose-lavender creme. Looks really clean on the nail. Applied somewhat streaky in the first coat; my advice is to apply as little pressure as possible with the brush to prevent dragging. It’s a great colour for those looking for something relatively neutral, but that is still a little out of the ordinary.

Here it is, shatterized (a word I just made up, what).

OPI Silver Shatter, which I believe came out in the same collection. I really love the look of Silver Shatter over pale, muted colours, so it was a perfect addition to the Pirates collection.

I bought Silver Shatter myself while I was in Hong Kong. I usually shy away from purchasing OPIs in HK as they are grossly overpriced – they run for about $120HKD/$15CAD on average, which is almost twice as expensive. However, I found this in Bonjour Cosmetics on sale for $64HKD, which makes it cheaper than the usual places I buy OPIs from in Vancouver. Nice!

The OPI Shatters are irritating, though. My Black Shatter is so goopy, it’s almost unusable. Silver Shatter turned goopy near the opening of the bottle within minutes. I fear the shelf life of the OPI Shatters is going to be very short indeed, so keep that in mind when purchasing. I’ve actually still got two more Shatters to review, so keep an eye out for them!

OPI’s Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous is from their Swiss Collection for Fall 2010. What a fabulous colour! A gorgeous charcoal (reminds me of pencil lead) polish chock full of foil shimmer. It glitters beautifully in the sunlight, but isn’t gritty to the touch at all, and removal is pretty easy too. At two coats, application gave me no troubles at all. Not sure what else to say about this. It’s quite a straightforward colour and not much to write home about. If you’re into gunmetal foil nail polishes, you’ll certainly love this!